


Be Careful, Wraith

by wafflesandkruge



Series: Six of Crows Assassin's Creed AU [1]
Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Assassin's Creed AU, F/M, Friendship, Gen, a smidge of angst?, minor angst?, vague violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 01:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15939317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflesandkruge/pseuds/wafflesandkruge
Summary: When Inej gets hurt on a job, Kaz helps the only way he knows how- death and destruction.





	Be Careful, Wraith

**Author's Note:**

> Idea's been in my head for a while, enjoy!

* * *

 

Inej gazed down at the bustling port city from her perch on the top of a church spire. Although the sun was about to set, people still hurried along, trying to get in one last bit of business before those with more sinister intentions started roaming. Kaz’s words echoed in her head: _Be careful, Wraith._

She always was. With one last glance of the street below, she straightened up, extended her arms, and let herself fall from the spire. As always, she felt a split second of panic before she landed with a _whump_ into a cart of clean hay someone had helpfully set up for her. She clambered out and shook the straw out of her hair and clothes. No one on the street seemed to notice the lithe girl as she pulled her peaked hood over her head and slipped into the shadows, waiting for her target.

* * *

 

An hour later, darkness had descended. The street was noticeably less crowded, yet Inej still had not spotted who she was looking for: the leader of the Black Tips. She shifted uncomfortably. The alley she was hiding in was dank and narrow and, even with a scarf pulled over the lower half of her face, stank to high heaven. _Another 15 minutes,_ she promised herself. Then she would consider Kaz’s information to be bad and seek a different lead tomorrow.

The passing men on the street were all very well dressed, no doubt from ill-gained wealth. Ketterdam was full of these crime lords- Kaz was no exception. The Brotherhood tolerated them as long as they stuck to their own territories and didn’t get too powerful. If any of them stepped out of line, they would receive a warning. If they chose to ignore it, Inej or one of her brothers would be sent to deal with it. Inej didn’t like the killing, but it had to be done. Ketterdam’s gang leaders were too power-hungry for their own good. One spark would be all they needed to start a full out war that would drag innocent citizens into the fray.

Soon, she started recognizing faces. There was Petyr Slatos, one of the Black Tips’ lieutenants. He was with Lia Thorne, another lieutenant. Both seemed wary, scanning the streets with hands on their weapons. _They must be escorting someone,_ Inej realized, creeping closer to the mouth of the alley to get a better look. Behind the two lieutenants was another cluster of Black Tips who moved along quickly, seeming to surround a single person. Inej’s hidden blade slid free with a soft metallic scrape as she recognized the figure being protected. Helena Mikar, leader of the Black Tips- and her target.

Lately, the Brotherhood had noticed subtle expansion of the Black Tips’ territory into other gangs’, most notably the Dregs’. Kaz Brekker himself had reported strange actions to her. Black Tips in the heart of his gambling dens in the dead of night, never gambling, just observing. An increased rate of turncoats among the Dregs. Cargoes of unknown substances in Black Tip shipments. The Brotherhood wasn’t pleased, to say the least. After Helena had ignored their warning to stay in her own territory, they’d given Inej the task to dispose of her. She’d been gathering information for the last week, trying to find an opportunity, but Helena was aware of the kill order. It made things difficult, but Inej did not plan on failing.

The group passed Inej’s line of sight. Not wanting to be spotted on the relatively unoccupied street, she quickly scaled the building for an unobstructed view. Without the shelter of the imposing buildings, cold wind nipped at her exposed face. She silently thanked the Saints that it was a moonless night, or she wouldn’t be able to stay hidden quite as well.

The gang members never let their guard down as she followed them past the bawdy West Stave, all the way to Fifth Harbor. Inej frowned as they slowed at the docks, seemingly searching for a certain vessel. Fifth Harbor was the heart of Dregs territory, they wouldn’t dare risk coming here without good reason.

Inej’s ears perked as Helena’s shrill voice pierced the night. She crept as close as she dared on the roof to try to catch the gang leader’s words.

“Van Eck promised to secure me a ship!” she raged, her guards shifting uneasily beside her. They glanced around at the deserted port, only faintly lit by the lanterns strung on ships’ riggings.

_What an interesting development_ , Inej mused. Helena was in league with the Templars. All the more reason to be rid of her. The fog made the bricks of the townhouses slippery as she quietly made her way down, but she’d come this way many times. Her training would not fail her. She was a blade, forged for a single purpose. Tonight, Helena would die.

* * *

 

“And put a tail on Jackal of the Slickers,” Kaz instructed as he ascended the stairs of the Slat, towards his quarter. “I want every movement, every transaction.”

“Of course,” his lieutenant complied with a quick bow of the head, hurrying off to do his bidding. Anika was a diligent worker; he had yet to encounter a problem with her. It wouldn’t be too far of a leap to say that he trusted her, as much as Kaz could ever trust someone from the Barrel.

He reached his room, but before he could unlock the door, he heard an unmistakable thud from the other side. His grip on his cane tightened. Nobody but him had keys to his rooms, and he’d made sure to express to his Dregs that they were off-limits unless one desired several broken bones via cane. He was silent for another moment, listening, but hearing no more sounds, he cautiously pushed the door open and hefted his cane. He was met with a not-so-pleasant surprise.

“Inej!”

The assassin was lying in a heap under the now-open window, her usual method of entry. She was curled up and even from the door, he could see a dark bloodstain seeping through her dark suit and puddling on the floorboards. Her usual bronze complexion was pale and tightly drawn in pain.

“Kaz…” she coughed out weakly. “Call Jesper...Brotherhood…”

He crossed the room in an instant and kneeled by her side. He gently rolled her oto her back so he could examine the wound. “You need a medik. Now.” He turned and was about to call Anika back to fetch one , but Inej shook her head.

“No. No mediks. I don’t trust- call Jesper.”

“Don’t be stupid, he’s halfway across the city.”

Despite her current predicament, Inej still managed to scowl at him. “Call Jesper.”

“Fine.” He poked his head out the door and called for Anika. When she appeared, he made sure to angle himself in a way that hid Inej from view. “I need Jesper from the Brotherhood. Tell him it’s about Inej. Quickly.”

She scurried off and Kaz returned to Inej’s side. The blood wasn’t slowing. Damn. He stripped off his vest and pressed the fabric to her wound, making her cry out quietly. “Come on, Inej. Stay awake. Who stabbed you?”

A muscle in her jaw twitched. “Lia Thorne.”

His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Black Tips? Inej, I would expect better from you.”

She was silent for a moment, seemingly gathering strength to speak. “She wasn’t my target, so I didn’t kill her. She stabbed me as soon as I turned my back on her.”

“Black Tips don’t deserve mercy,” said a new voice from the direction of the window. Jesper Fahey pulled himself into the room with one smooth motion and knelt on the floor by Inej. He’d gotten here impossibly fast. Like Inej, he wore Assassin’s robes, but while hers were properly dark and muted in color, Jesper’s were ridiculously bright and patterned. Kaz honestly wondered how he was able to sneak around Ketterdam dressed like a clown.

“Jesper,” Inej greeted.

“Inej.” He went to work quickly, discarding Kaz’s now-ruined vest and cutting away the layers of Inej’s robes. He sucked in a breath as the final layer peeled away to reveal the ugly wound. Blood still trickled slowly out of the gash at her side right below her ribs. Inej hissed as he gently cleaned it to get a better look. Kaz watched Jesper’s face carefully, trying to gauge the severity of the damage from his expression. If the Black Tips killed Inej...Kaz’s hand curled tightly around his cane. There would be hell to pay.

“We need Nina. Kaz, if you have any medical supplies and jurda root, that would be helpful too.”

Kaz quickly gave the order to another lieutenant outside his door then retrieved his personal medical kit from his closet. Jesper cleaned the wound as best as he could and continued trying to stop the bleeding, but with every moment that passed, Inej seemed less and less grounded in their world. Her eyelashes fluttered as she labored for each raspy breath, her chest barely moving.

“Inej, hey,” Jesper breathed. “Hey, look at me. Nina’s on the way, you need to stay awake.”

Her eyes cracked open, still hazy with pain. “You’re...too bright. Wear proper robes.”

“That’s it, Ghafa. Just a little longer,” he encouraged, but Kaz could hear the desperation slowly edging into his tone. He looked up and exchanged a look with Kaz. This was getting dicier by the second, and if there was one thing Kaz didn’t like, it was situations beyond his control.

Tense minutes ticked by as Jesper exchanged light barbs with Inej, trying to keep her awake. Kaz drummed his fingers on the head of his cane, the only visible indication of his nervousness. After this, he was going to completely rehaul his plans for medical emergencies. If it took this long for a medik to get to the Slat, he might as well sign his own death warrant.

Suddenly, the door flew open and Nina Zenik rushed in. The Grisha quickly dropped to her knees and shoved Jesper aside. Following behind her was Rotty, who waited outside the door, offering Kaz a jar of jurda root. Kaz accepted it with a nod, then slammed the door in his face.

“Jurda root,” he announced, wishing he could do more than be some serving boy.

Jesper snatched it from him and tore off a small chunk. He placed it carefully in Inej’s mouth. “Chew. It’ll stop the pain.”

Inej only managed a few weak chews before her eyes fluttered shut and her head lolled back. Kaz felt his blood freeze. _No._

Jesper checked her pulse, his eyes wide with panic. “Nina, her pulse is dropping. Do something!”

“I’m trying!” she snapped. Her hands lingered at Inej’s side a moment longer, then moved to her chest, presumably to stabilize her heart. At that moment, Kaz decided he could no longer bear to be in that room. He needed to be doing something useful, something that would help Inej in a way he was capable of doing. He swept out of the room, leaving Jesper and Nina to their frantic ministrations. Just outside, Rotty and Anika were waiting, probably eavesdropping on the goings-on inside the room. They instantly straightened up, but their guilty eyes told Kaz exactly what he wanted to know.

“Boss, is Miss Inej gonna be alright?” Rotty asked nervously. The Dregs were all accustomed to having Inej around the Slat, and they’d all seen her in action during skirmishes. She’d earned their trust by having their backs and they treated her like one of their own. Kaz decided to be truthful, just to give them a little more conviction during this new assignment. “We don’t know yet. She’s not doing too well right now.”

“Whoever did this to her, we’ll kill them,” Anika vowed, her eyes blazing. Despite it all, Kaz smiled, a wicked and cruel thing twisting on his lips.

“The Black Tips. Who, coincidentally, are due for a little visit.”

* * *

 

Kaz wiped off the blood from the tip of his cane with the shirt of a Black Tip that hadn’t been smart enough to flee once Helena was killed. He surveyed the damage around him. The Dregs had beat the remaining Black Tips to a bloody pulp. Their territory, bordering their own, was now ripe for Dregs expansion. Their assets would be seized, and Kaz would make sure every last, miserable, trace of their gang was eradicated.

Anika ran up to him, her shirt stained with blood and her short hair wild. “We’ve received a runner from the Slat. Inej is alive.”

The unspoken _for now_ hung in the air between them. Kaz turned on his heels. “Lay out their options to them: join us or leave Kerch. Seize whatever assets they have, make it known that whoever even mentions the Black Tips from now on shall have their tongue cut out. Place Dregs at whatever properties they may have, make sure everything is accounted for. And if you find Lia Thorne, kindly drag her to our jurda warehouse and shackle her to a wall. We have some…  unfinished business.”

Anika hesitated. “What about the Brotherhood? They don’t like it when…”

“I’ll deal with them.”

“Yes, boss.”

As he made his way back to the Slat, Kaz’s own words echoed in his head. One does not _deal_ with the Brotherhood, one hopes the Brotherhood does not deal with _them_. He hoped they would look the other way with this, they’d ordered the death of Helena after all. But if not...his mind raced with the failsafes he’d need in place. Maybe he’d set up a secondary gang-

“Scheming face,” a familiar voice remarked from his right. Kaz whirled and hefted his cane, only to encounter Jesper’s smirking face. “Relax, Brekker.”

“Don’t sneak up on me, Fahey, or I swear to Ghezen-”

The assassin’s eyebrows raised. “You’ll kill me? Good luck.”

Kaz sensed this wasn’t a fight he’d win. “How’s Inej?”

Jesper sobered up. “She’s stabilized a bit. Nina’s still with her, making sure she doesn’t go into shock. We think she’ll pull through if she makes it through tonight.”

“When. When she makes it through tonight.” Kaz refused to entertain the possibility that Inej wouldn’t make it. He tried to convince himself that it was because she was a valuable link to the Brotherhood that kept him out of hot water with them, but he knew, deep down, that that wasn’t strictly true. Jesper did his fair share of making sure he wasn’t waylaid by a Templar trying to seize his power. But Inej…

“When,” agreed Jesper, after giving Kaz a strange look. “Nina and I are going to stay with her tonight, so you may want to find a different place to sleep.”

“I’ll be fine.”

* * *

 

Inej groaned as she cracked her eyes open for the first time in what felt like weeks. Her throat burned and her body was stiff. Thankfully, she seemed to be lying on a decent bed with a soft pillow behind her head. She blinked as her eyes adjusted, focusing on a familiar water-spotted ceiling. Saints, she was in Kaz Brekker’s quarters.  

“Oh, Inej,” Nina squealed, and Inej felt herself be enveloped in a warm hug. “You’re alive!”

She gave her friend a smile. “It would seem so.”

She vaguely remembered stumbling through the Barrel after the assassination at Fifth Harbor, then dragging herself through Kaz’s window. Everything after that was too hazy to recall. She couldn’t explain why, in one of her most vulnerable moments, she had decided to go to Kaz, of all people. She knew he would make sure she got proper medical care, if purely for the sake of his business, but even so…

She attempted to sit up, but a sharp pain at her side made it difficult. She sucked in a shaky breath as Nina helped prop her up against the pillow.

“Take it easy, I’m not the best medik,” Nina joked, but Inej could see the worry in her eyes. Nina had never been formally trained as a medik; her knowledge had been cobbled together over her years as a friend of both the Dregs and the Brotherhood.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. I need to report back to the Brotherhood,” Inej said. “How long have I been out?”

“Two days. It’s late evening now. But you’re not going anywhere for at least two more, Inej, it’s far too risky.”

“One more,” Inej bargained. She would not be stuck for a moment longer than absolutely necessary.

“Two, if you’re lucky,” Nina said with finality. She clapped her hands. “You must be famished, I’ll get someone to fetch food and drink.”

“Nina-”

“Food! And drink!” Nina swept out of the room with a final swish of her bright skirts.

Inej sighed. It seemed that nothing was going to dissuade her friend, but perhaps she could sneak out once she felt a little better. The Brotherhood was going to be worried, and she needed to get back to her work. Speaking of work… Inej glanced over at Kaz’s desk. It was piled high with untouched paperwork, something she’d never seen before from the ambitious gang leader. He clearly hadn’t returned since finding her bleeding out on his floor. She didn’t quite know how to feel about that fact, but she knew not to expect any warmth from the bastard of the Barrel.

Inej’s stomach growled as Nina bustled in with a tray of hot food. Inej consumed enough food for three people while Nina caught her up on what had happened since Helena’s death. She had just pushed the tray away when Nina started telling her about Kaz taking over Black Tips territory. It was a blatant reach for power, but if he hadn’t done it, sooner or later, another gang leader would have. The Brotherhood wouldn’t react well, Inej knew, and she sincerely hoped Kaz wouldn’t be her next assignment. For all her conviction in their cause, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to say goodbye to the boy with the gloved hands and gravelly voice just yet.

“Inej?” Nina’s voice snapped her out of her train of thought. Inej blinked and realized she hadn’t heard what Nina had been asking her. Nina shook her head, exasperated, and repeated her question. “Do you have a message for the Brotherhood? Jesper can carry it back when he stops by later.”

“I’ll need a pen and paper.” She needed to at least write a report if she couldn’t give it in person. Nina fetched them for her and waited impatiently as Inej slowly and methodically filled three pages with coded words and numbers. One could never be too careful.

Once she folded and sealed her message, Nina snatched it from her and tossed it carelessly onto Kaz’s desk. “You’re always all work and no play, Inej. After you rest for _two_ days and get better, we should go out for waffles. Matthias, that big lump, won’t say it, but he’s missed you too.”

Inej felt a smile grow on her face. It was true, she hadn’t spent enough time with Nina and her antics lately. “That would be nice. I’ll drag Jesper and Wylan along.”

Nina glanced conspiratorially at the door before leaning in closer. “I’ll get Kaz to come. I bet he secretly hates getting left out of our waffle trips,” she said in a stage whisper.

“Really?” Inej questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Mmhmm,” Nina confirmed. “Now, I know you love my company, but it’s time for some much needed bed rest, for the both of us. Jesper will pick up your letter in an hour, and I’ll come check on you before breakfast. Good night, Inej.”

“Good night, Nina.”

* * *

 

The next day, Inej slipped out the window before Nina brought her dinner, feeling almost back to her old self. There was much work to be done, none of which could be accomplished from Kaz Brekker’s bed.

* * *

 

Kaz mechanically went through the arduous procedure of unlocking his door, his fingers a little slower than usual. It had been a long day meeting with the Brotherhood, and then the other Barrel bosses. He needed some drink in him, then maybe a few hours of sleep if he got through the day’s ledgers quickly.

With a satisfying click, he undid the last lock and the door swung open. He instantly noticed two things that were amiss. First, the room smelled of fresh air. It was usually stale after he’d spent an entire day away on business, which meant someone had to have opened a window recently.

Second, a small, neatly wrapped parcel sat on his desk. He quickly re-locked his door before cautiously approaching the package. It could easily be poison, or some kind of bomb. He prayed that wasn’t the case— he was much too tired to handle it properly. He lifted his cane and prodded the package with the tip. When it didn’t explode after some initial jostling, he moved a little closer. He caught sight of the neat handwriting on the top and instantly felt foolish. Of course. It was from Inej. Who else would be able to get into a room this secure with hardly a trace? He collapsed into his chair and held the package closer to the light for examination. There were only two words written on the front. _Thank you._

Kaz didn’t want to be reminded of last week’s events, so he quickly turned the parcel over to undo the knot. His brows furrowed as he read the words on the back. _Careful- poison._

Sighing at the necessity of precaution, he retrieved two delicate knives from a drawer and proceeded to cut the string and unfold the paper. Opening the box with just knives was a little harder than expected, but with some effort, he finally pried the lid off.

Inside, nestled in rich red velvet, was a silver tie pin of a crow and cup, the very same ones branded on his forearm. A single ruby filled in the crow’s slitted eye. He picked it up with a gloved hand and examined it. It was Grisha-made, that he was sure of, but he still didn’t quite understand how it was poisonous.

Unless- he gave the it a small tug, and as he suspected, the crow and cup detached from the pin stick. A long needle gleaming with an unknown substance was attached to to the bottom of the crow, and as he watched, a drop of it collected on the tip and dripped onto his desk. The wood seemed to blacken as it seeped in. Kaz hurriedly resheathed the pin before he could do further damage to his furniture. “Careful, poison” indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I do have other stories planned for this au, including a wylan/jesper story and a nina/matthias story, so stay tuned… Teasers/ideas will be posted to @wafflesandkruge under #soc ac au on tumblr. Please drop some constructive criticism, or send a dm if you'd like to beta the helnik story that's in the works.


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